The Housing Shortage Part I: Boomers Holding Onto Inventory

Data suggests overall satisfaction with homes and boomers’ desire to stay put as top reasons for the lack of homes on the market.

72 percent of existing home owners aged 55+ indicated their current home fits their current needs.

85 percent of those boomers don’t plan to sell in the next 12 months.

As boomers decide to stay put so are approximately 33 million properties, blocking the path to entry for millennials and first time home buyers.

The U.S. real estate market is currently experiencing the worst inventory deficiency in 20 years, which new data from our realtor.com® Housing Shortage Study suggests can be attributed to two primary reasons – boomers’ reluctance to sell and homes fitting current family needs. The findings come from an online survey of 1,054 randomly selected homeowners across the U.S. conducted on behalf of realtor.com® between July 6 and 13. The respondents were asked a series of questions aimed at examining the root causes of the current national inventory shortage.